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Awkward doesn't even begin to descripe that border... Hopefully the Germans will manage to press enough supplies through there. It'll be a good bottleneck either way.
Now you got some strange boarders in Poland
I do indeed. Whether I can take advantage of the strategically interesting boarders in the future is yet to be seen. For the moment though they give me some useful manpower and leadership gains.
They should be able to, the supply network tends to try and push everything along just a few axes from what I have seen, rather than spread it out across all the possible routes.
If it does end up hampering the Germans, then I might very well take advantage of that, if it doesn't and the Germans successfully attack the Soviets then I could also join in or still stab the Germans in the back.
Chapter 6.3 - The Invasion of France
With the fall of Poland and peaceful times having returned to Hungary, the aim now is re-organise the army for the challenges ahead whilst waiting for Germany to do their stuff in Western Europe.
The first stage of this re-organisation is to create some new HQs for the various garrison and anti-partisan forces that will control Hungary's new lands. I've formed 9 new HQs, some at Army level and some at Army Group level as I want to benefit from some, although minor, bonuses to the troops' org and supply usage. These HQs will all eventually be merged with the new anti-partisan divisions being built.
By the 14th of June, Germany had almost finished their conquest of Belgium and the Netherlands and their army is now sitting on the French border. Having now outflanked the Maginot Line, the German invasion of France could begin. The Allies have recruited Haiti to their faction, though I doubt this will change the German plans very much. It does however slightly upset my own plans. You will have noticed that one of my Army HQs in the previous screenshot had been named Caribbean Hadtest even though I currently have no possessions in the region. Haiti had been a potential target of mine as it would have provided a useful base for potential future operations in the Americas. This plan will now need to be put on the back burner and an alternative found.
As I no longer need to worry about holding a front line against the Polish army I can now deal with those pesky Estonian nationalists in Petseri. Thankfully they have caused no further damage by expanding their revolt, possibly because it seems that they are out of supply. The rest of the troops that I had on the northern front in the war against Poland are all heading to Memel to be picked up by the navy and transported to future areas of operations.
I have completed research into Light Cruisers meaning that I can now build Coastal Forts. I had originally also planned to use light cruisers as my screens for the navy hence my earlier purchase of 4 light cruiser production licences but I have since decided that destroyers would be a better choice for a couple of reasons. Firstly, they use the same doctrine tree as battleships, my capital ship of choice, and secondly because destroyer doctrines also increase my convoy escort efficiency. Due to my change of focus and because I also want to be able to build Naval Bases I replace the Light Cruiser tech in my current research with the Destroyer tech.
By the 22nd of June I have defeated the Estonian nationalists and returned the rule of law to the province of Petseri. Meanwhile I have received the news that El Salvador have joined the Allies, there soon won't be any countries in the Americas who haven't joined the Allies. I have also learnt that research into Light Tank Brigades has been completed and that Hungarian factories can start building tank designs of their own. At the moment they amount to little more than a machine gun mounted on a farm tractor but they will surely get better eventually.
I now have troops available to deal with the second group of partisans that popped up during my war against Poland. This time it is the turn of the Turkish nationalists in Caykara. Interestingly, although they hadn't moved since originally revolting they start to move towards Trabzon when my own troops are landed there by the navy meaning that I get a nice defensive battle.
At the end of June, the second level of Mobile Warfare is completed and my HQs can now move at the same speed as their attached infantry. As there is no real point in them being able to travel faster I cease this line of research and start work on researching Supply Organisation. I am already working on its partner tech Supply Transportation which I started a few days previously when the Light Armour tech completed. My future campaigns are going to be supplied through some low infra provinces and hence I want to boost the amount of supplies that reach the front lines as much as possible.
With the arrival of July and a fresh influx of manpower I have commenced construction of three new domestic light armour divisions. These are currently very basic designs but unlike ships they can be upgraded once they are already in the field. Best to get them built now and use my available IC for something useful.
The 7th of July brings news of the completion of not only five new garrison divisions but also of the second of the three interceptor's being built from German licences. The interceptor would be assigned to the 1st Interceptor Wing whilst one of the garrisons would be deployed in Bandar-e 'Abbas, the rest being deployed to Split to await shipping abroad.
Meanwhile in Turkey I am having a slight difficulty with the partisans. Although I had won the battle for Trabzon I was unable to subsequently counterattack due to a lack of supplies. As a result the partisans have taken the opportunity to take a second province, something they hadn't bothered to do all the time I was tied up in Poland. I am relocating my own troops so that as soon as they are in supply they can attack and destroy the partisans.
It is not until the 9th of July that my forces eventually link up with their supply columns and I am able to attack. As the partisans are already out of org from the first battle and constant bombing from my air force, the battle for Gümüshane results in an instant victory and I am now able to reclaim my lost provinces.
My transport fleet is currently a bit overworked transporting the large majority of my army around to new positions in my empire and it is a great relief that a second set of five transport ships are now complete. I have split my navy into two equal fleets, the main High Seas Fleet and a secondary Baltic Fleet which will end up being stationed in Riga once the current load of transporting is complete.
On the 11th of July, the first four anti partisan divisions become available and these are merged with some of my new HQs, the priority going to the three HQs to be deployed around the Baltic.
News has also arrived from South America that another American nation has joined a faction. This time it is Argentina but instead of joining the Allies like some of their neighbours, they have bucked the trend and joined the Axis. It seems that they have been watching what has been going on in Europe with the Germans and especially the Italians beating the various Allied armies in front of them and pushing deep into France.
The 10th of August sees the arrival of the last of my 12 initial garrison builds. The garrisons and HQ anti partisan divisions earmarked for Scandinavia have also now arrived in place and are ready to guard my vulnerable ports.
Just like Argentina, Brazil have also apparently come to the conclusion that the Axis are the better faction to join. With many South and Central American nations having joined the Allies but the biggest and strongest two joining the Axis, the Americas could well become an interesting theatre in the war between the two factions.
I have added another couple of light armoured divisions to my build queue now that I have some spare IC from the completion of previous builds. These two divisions will bring the eventual 2nd Armoured Corps up to full strength. I have also started work on improving the defenses of some of my ports that I have garrisoned. Not all of them are yet having new coastal forts built as a few already have them, namely Oslo, Göteborg and Bergen which all have level 3 forts currently and Trondheim which has a level 2 fort.
The peace is disturbed on the 22nd of August by another Nationalist uprising in the former Romanian province of Odorheiu Secuiesc. This time I can deal with it without delay as the Budapest HQ is relatively close and I order them to redeploy into the path of the troublesome partisans.
These partisan uprisings are more of a nuisance than an actual threat, the only real issue being if they ever take a province where I have some province improvements building.
Unfortunately the partisans made it to Sibiu first but they have now been engaged and will soon be destroyed and the provinces retaken.
Over in France Paris has been surrounded by the German army whilst the Italians have captured the whole of the southern half of the country. Mussolini isn't half going to be upset when France surrenders and the Italians lose all of their gains to either Germany or the newly formed state of Vichy France. In my opinion this is a silly situation caused by the ill thought out surrender events that we still have in v1.3. If Italy had done this well in real life I doubt Vichy would ever have been formed.
At the end of August I complete the final licence built interceptor squadron and assign it to the 2nd Interceptor Wing. In its place in the build queue I have gone plane crazy and added two further tactical bomber squadrons to add to the two already in the queue as well as two new interceptor squadrons. I have also added a plain infantry division which will eventually be merged with an HQ for the 2nd Armoured Corps.
One other item of note, you'll notice that although I am not currently funding it fully, my supply requirement is pretty large. This is because I have recently agreed to a trade deal proposed by the USA to sell them 179.58 supplies per day for $28.64. I currently have a large supply stockpile as well as quite a lot of IC and decided I might as well cash it in so that if I am able to buy production licences from anybody in the future I have a nice supply of money to spend on them. To be honest this doesn't work quite as well as it should as there is a problem as far as I am concerned with how purchasing production licenses work. The cost of a production licence is partly determined by how much cash you have, the more cash you have, the more a license will cost you rather than it being a fairly set amount.
On the 4th of September I complete my research into Infantry Support Weapons. Progress has been slow on this tech as I have not been fully funding it and the same will occur for a while to its replacement in my tech queue, Militia Small Arms. The choice of this tech has been influenced by my recent garrison and militia builds making up my port garrisons and anti partisan forces.
The following day and with the Germans having finally taken Paris, Vichy France has been created. Mussolini's roar of rage could be heard all the way in Budapest. As his armies are forced to make the slow journey back to Italy from the lands they had thought they had conquered, they pass the watching Hungarian armoured divisions in former Switzerland.
Following the surrender of their former ally, the British decide to destroy the remains of the French fleet in Mers-el-Kébir, allegedly to stop it falling into German hands. The Japanese also take advantage of France's misfortune and demand Indochina from the new state of Vichy, a demand which is accepted.
This gives the Japanese a new foothold on the Asian mainland near to their enclave on Hainan island which they have managed to hold onto. Only time would tell if Japan would be able to keep these new possessions or whether they would lose them to Guangxi Clique just like they lost their northern possessions to Shanxi.
Condering that you're pretty gamey yourself by exploiting the knowledge that all factions will at a very specific point fight each other instead of you, Paradox would have to come up with quite a lot of programming to prohibit things like this or at least make it much more dangerous. Eg in the case of Spain the Axis should've dow'ed you right away, that would've been a logical thing to to.
True, but this counteracts the more intelligent behavoir of a human player compared to an AI.
Very droll!!
This could get very interesting! It might keep the US busy on their home front!
Yep, I don't deny that my strategy isn't gamey, far from it, I fully admit that I will take any advantage I can get. I try not to take advantage of obvious bugs but I will take advantage of things that are supposedly working as designed even if they appear gamey as the opening of my next update will show.
Thn again, a world conquest attempt with Hungary is by definition gamey.
I also agree that actually getting surrender events to take full account of what is actually happening onthe ground would be a very big task, one that I doubt Paradox would or could take on. I also doubt it would actually be possible as the number of variations that can occur are too vast, especially due to the freedom a player can have to affect the outcome even with the smallest of nations.
As for production licenses, one thing that would really be nice is if the AI ever actually bought them, at the moment it seems to never even consider the possibility. Hopefully this is one area which will be improved in future patches along with many others.
Yeah, I'm going to be keeping half an eye on South America as it is the first time I have actually seen anything of note happen there apart from the time that I played as Brazil. I also wonder whether the USA will head south rather then head overseas to Europe, Africa or Asia but I also would not be surprised if they just content themselves by building a massive army in Wahington DC or somewhere. By being at war from the 4th of May and being able to get rid of the New Deal so early, the USA is going to end up as a massive force whatever it eventually does.
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Chapter 6.4 - The Short life of Vichy
With the creation of Vichy I go to declare war, but although I have been able to declare war on everyone else without any problem, I am unable to declare war on Vichy. This is due to them being created with little knowledge of what has been happening in the world the past few years.
Also of note is the diplomatic triangle which is currently showing the remaining unaligned nations in the world. Hungary is stuck halfway between the Axis and the Allies, somewhere where I am not to keen on staying. Most of the other remaining nations are in the same area, somewhere between the Allies and the Axis, all that is except for Australia who for some reason are totally shunning the Allies and are halfway between the Axis and the Comintern which is all rather odd.
There are three ways I can declare war on Vichy France. I can reduce my neutrality further or use spies to increase Vichy's threat level, but both of these methods would take a lot of time. I could also increase my own threat level to Vichy, a method which is a lot quicker. In order to do this, I declare war on the Dominican Republic as I want a good base in the Caribbean anyway. At the moment I can't actually get to the Dominican Republic, not without first taking Guadaloupe away from Vichy, so I also now declare war on Vichy, my primary target.
Vichy only have a National Unity of 50% meaning that I don't have to run all over the place grabbing their far flung VPs. However I can't just rely on their mainland VPs and as a result my plan only calls for three of them to be taken whilst I also conduct naval landings to take some of their other nearby VPs in North Africa and the Middle East.
With the Italian army still trying to get home, my 1st Armoured Corps heads out into France to grab the nearby VPs.
At midday, with the Baltic Fleet having arrived at the eastern end of the Mediterranean, II Állandó Hadsereg disembark from the ships and launch an invasion of Vichy French Lebanon, the eventual target being the VP province of Dimashq as well as the port of Beirut.
Meanwhile, the Axis have been putting pressure on Siam and they have eventually joined up, becoming a puppet of Japan in the process. This should give Japan a slightly better chance of holding Indochina or it could also mean them losing out in the area to not just Guangxi Clique but the British as well.
Later in the afternoon and with the High Seas Fleet having arrived off the north coast of Africa, I Állandó Hadsereg begin an unopposed landing at Tunis. Once this landing is complete they will make a further landing along the coast at Alger.
With the landings in Lebanon complete, II Állandó Hadsereg have attacked the solitary French infantry brigades in both Beirut and Al Qusayr. The French forces have been formed at full strength and full org but should nevertheless provide little opposition as they are both being attacked by two Hungarian divisions each. Further divisions are advancing unopposed into the VP province of Dimashq.
By the 9th of September, the battle for Beirut is over with casualties on the Hungarian side being very minimal indeed. With the port soon to be taken, supplies for II Állandó Hadsereg have been assured. Meanwhile in France, the 1st Armoured Corps has met their first opposition in the form of another solitary infantry brigade in Montbrison. The situation in France is rather confused due to the number of Italian formations passing through the area but the 1st Armoured Corps is still able to make rapid progress.
By the following day, Dimashq has fallen to II Állandó Hadsereg and one infantry division is ordered to continue north to cut off the retreat of Vichy forces from Beirut. The army is also cheered by the news that the formation of three of the new anti partisan divisions has been completed, these will be merged with some of the remaining HQs and shipped to their area of operations.
The 11th of September and news comes through that the battle of Al Qusayr has resulted in another victory for Hungarian forces, again for minimal casualties. In north Africa, I Állandó Hadsereg have now completed their trio of amphibious landings by taking a third VP province in Casablanca, again unopposed.
By now the 1st Armoured Corps is involved in three separate battles in mainland France, all of which are going well and should further victories for the Hungarian army shortly.
It turns out that the battles in France were largely unnecessary as the VPs taken in North Africa and the Middle East along with two which have already fallen in France are enough to force Vichy France to surrender. The campaign has only lasted for six days but the annexation of Vichy France sees huge swathes of land all over the globe fall into Hungarian hands.
With Vichy France defeated, Hungary now possess a naval base on the Caribbean island of Guadaloupe and the Baltic Fleet heads that way carrying two garrison divisions as well as the Caribbean Hadtest Army HQ anti-partisan division.
Two other pieces of welcome news also come in, firstly that research into Sea Lane Defense has been completed, opening up the possibility of researching further naval doctrines as well as the ability to build Convoy Escorts. The second piece of news is that France have finally decided that they are no longer able to fund their attempt to influence Hungary towards the Allies. This is especially good news as it means that I am now only being influenced by the Axis and should see Hungary start moving towards their corner of the diplomatic triangle opening up the possibility of being able to purchase more production licences in the future.
With the completion of the Sea Lane Defense doctrine I am able to start a new research project and my choice is to research Infantry Anti-Tank Weapons as I believe my next target, after I have dealt with the Dominican Republic, will have some tanks, possibly in some numbers.
Also of note is that with the acquisition of Vichy France I am finally able to fully support all of my current research projects as my leadership total has risen from 9.69 to 10.16. This also means that I am able to fund the training of some officers as my officer ratio has now fallen to 122%, however it is admittedly very few officers that I can train.
I have also gained 1.2 more to my monthly manpower income giving me a new total of 23.6. My IC has similarly gone up by 11 base and 18 effective meaning that I am able to fund some new builds. As I have just developed the tech to build convoy escorts I start work on ten parallel runs as I will need a large number of escorts as soon as possible. Although escorts don't stop an enemy attacking your convoys very often they do mean that the enemy takes damage meaning that they can attack your convoys less frequently.
On the 19th of September I receive the final two of my initial run of anti partisan divisions. As with those built previously, these new divisions will be merged with the remaining two HQs I formed a while back and will now start work awaiting and responding to any new nationalist risings. The regular army will now be fully freed up for any offensive operations I undertake.
Meanwhile, over in South America it appears that the acquisition of both Argentina and Brazil into the Axis is now paying dividends with the news that Bolivia has surrendered to Argentina and has been puppetted by them. This means that there are now three Axis nations in South America.
Although Colombia have managed to advance into the Brazilian jungles, the situation is looking pretty dire for Paraguay who have lost provinces to both Brazil and Argentina and now just have their capital left.
This fighting in South America is rather interesting as it is rare for it to blow up like this without the direct intervention of the player. Admittedly, it has been my high threat levels that originally caused the rush to join factions but it has been the AI that has done the rest of the work.
The 22nd of September brings three pieces of foreign news. The Allies have gained a member but also effectively lost one as Guatemala has joined them but Denmark has surrendered to Germany, choosing to go into exile rather than be fully annexed. This is good news for Hungary as it now closes off the Baltic to the Allies (although the AI has a tendency to cheat sometimes, it does lessen the threat). The third piece of news is that Siam has joined Japan's war against the various Chinese factions.
As September draws to a close, the Hungarian army make an amphibious landing in the undefended Dominican province of Santiago causing their surrender. The Dominican Republic had two VP provinces but most of their points were in Santiago so their surrender only required this province.
With peace having returned to Hungary I choose to demobilise again. This is not because I plan to be at peace for a long time but because I was never able to fully reinforce my army the last time I mobilised due to a lack of manpower. As a result, when I re-mobilise again I want to benefit from the 30 day mobilisation bonus which speeds up the reinforcement process. In the meantime it doesn't harm me to save a few IC by not being mobilised during peace.
Following the acquisition of the Dominican Republic I take steps to strengthen my hold there by starting construction of a coastal fort in Santo Domingo. Other than the strategic location I haven't gained much by taking this small Caribbean nation, no gain to manpower or leadership but I have gained 3 base IC and 5 effective IC.
The 4th of October brings me my first opportunity to test one of my new anti partisan divisions in battle as Finnish nationalists rise up in Korsnäs. Unfortunately for them they have launched their uprising right next door to the Finland Hadtest Army HQ division and are therefore attacked immediately. My new division passes the test nicely and soon disposes of the rebels and takes back the province.
This is a rather messy screenshot for which I apologise, I would have preferred to split this up somewhat but would have gone over the 20 screenshot per post limit if I had (or had to split this update into two posts.
Over the last week or so a number of research jobs have been completed, research into three of them, Supply Organisation, Supply Transportation and Industrial Efficiency, carry on into the next level. The other two completed jobs, Destroyer Tech and Advanced Construction Engineering are both breakthrough techs and hence two completely new research projects are started, the next level of Agriculture as well as Electronic and Mechanical Engineering. The second of these techs doesn't actually give me any advantages but is needed for me to get some techs further along the line, specifically Radios which will give me an increase in combat efficiency, Radars which my ships can eventually use as well as the ability to build radar installations and also Mechanical Computing Machine which is needed to research Fire Control Systems for my navy. As I have mentioned in the past, the Mechanical Computing Machine tech itself doesn't actually work in 1.3 as it doesn't currently reduce the time techs take to research at all. Come to think of it, and I have only just realised this, I wouldn't be surprised if this also means that enemy spies disrupting your research also has no effect on research speed for the same reason that the bonus techs have no effect.
To complete the messy appearance of this screenshot I have also added the brigade breakdown of my army at the top. I currently have 5 Armoured Car brigades with 10 Light Armoured, 12 Artillery brigades with 36 Garrison brigades, 18 Militia brigades with 9 Infantry brigades and a further 105 Infantry brigades either in pure Infantry divisions or attached to various HQs of which I have a total of 19. This means the total size of my army including HQ brigades is currently 214 brigades.
Hungary is now ready to take on one of the factions, but before I do so and before I lose chunks of my empire, it is time to show the extent of the Great Hungarian Empire in all its glory.
Hungary now has lands stretching from the Pacific to the Caribbean, from the Indian Ocean to the Baltic, all over Africa, the Middle East and half of Europe. Will Hungary's next enemies conquer her Empire bit by bit or will Hungary's armies prove strong enough to stretch their reach even further?
Truly amazing, given the point you started from. Though, if the diplomatic side was working right, someone would have declared war on you long ago. I am pretty sure the allies would have been just as adamant about a resurgent Austro-Hungarian empire as a German one.
Just an idea, i know someone has suggested bottlenecking the germans before. If the germans put the entire eastern theater forces on the poland/russian border. You could have a few divisions on both the north and south peninsula's you have in poland and just run straight through and create a line which would cut the entire eastern forces supplies off entirely and would be easy to just mop them up and move west to berlin.
I agree, if the diplomatic side of the game didn't ignore everyone apart from the traditional majors I would have been in serious doo-daa a long time ago. The Soviets would have been incensed by my invasion of Bulgaria, if not my invasion of Romania before it, the Allies would probably have done something about my invasion of Czechoslovakia and the Germans would have gone seriously ape when I invaded Austria whatever I claimed about recreating the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In fact the Italians would probably have been upset by me invading Yugoslavia and definitely would of been upset when I took Albania, after all it was virtually a puppet of theirs in OTL.Truly amazing, given the point you started from. Though, if the diplomatic side was working right, someone would have declared war on you long ago. I am pretty sure the allies would have been just as adamant about a resurgent Austro-Hungarian empire as a German one.
Oh I fully intend to do so when I am strong enough and the time is right. Whether I encircle the Germans there or whether I catch the Soviet armies as they advance against Germany will be the question.
In the game you may luck out, IRL the Soviets would have steam-rolled right over you to take the baltics and Poland as they beat the Germans back, I suspect.
The Russians failed to steamroll Finland in 39/40. Their border with this Hungary is relatively small and relative to Finland the Hungarian army is quite strong and large. The Russians would've found it hard to contest the Hungarians, especially when the suspected that Germany was up to something. Even though Hitler would've invaded Hungary the second they dow'ed Austria
@ Xamand: Those Anti Partisan formations surely require lots of officers, why are you building them that way when you eventually want to reach that 200% officer coverage?
So we'll probably see your forces moving out against the Allies first and in the meantime let the Communists and Fascists fight each other to a standstill?
Just bear in mind that your own troops could very well be surrounded if you're considering the relatively small army of Hungary compared to the much bigger armies of the Axis or the Communists.
I would assume that the Eastern German forces is, what you see is what you get kinda deal. They more then likely wont move the Western forces over the theater line so if he manages to kill the supplies off and they cant move it would be a cake walk to the VIP regions of germany.
As Baltasar pointed out, the ability for the Soviets yo steamroll someone was very dependant on the year. The purges left the Red Army in a right sorry state. Then again, the terain and conditions wouldn't have suited me as the defender as much as it did Finland in RL.
Additionaly, I think the Soviets would have been very suspicious of the German part in all this, the Hungarian army is after all using quite a lot of German equipment.
I'll answer the second part first. Yes and very much a concern, I plan to enlarge the army further before I take either the Axis or Comintern on. Meanwhile, most of the land I get from the Allies is occupied rather than annexed land, hence it gives me greater amounts of leadership and manpower.
As for the anti partisan units, I take it you are referring to the addition of the HQs? The HQ brigades aren't an integral part of the divisions, I just don't like having divisions attached directly to my Theatre HQ, I prefer to have some sort of command hierarchy in place, it's not the most efficient way to go about things but it is tidier. As I am going to have the HQs in the area anyway, I might as well attach them to the anti partisan units to add a tiny bit more combat power. It was just a coincidence that I had the same number of each. Even with the HQs they still use less officers than a standard infantry division.
They are part of the Allies so I couldn't grab them without being at war with the Allies. As I can't currently contest the seas against the RN or USN, any amphibious invasion of Ireland would be akin to suicide. They will have to wait until I have a strong navy, a few years yet
The eastern forces won't be that easy, there seem to be quite a few on the Soviet border now. Additionaly, cutting them off from Berlin won't put them completely out of supply. If I understand the 1.3 patch notes correctly they will still be supllied from local IC, assuming that this actually works properly.
I kind of don't see the point of going to war with the allies. The only allied nation you could attack are the British African colonies. And I think they are pretty much wortheless. As you said you can't finish britain off because of the Royal Navy. So you get stuck with a war against the USA and GB for minimal gain.
Am I right?
Am I right?
The point is: total Hungarian world conqe... liberation.
And he can not only close the Med to any Allied (Axis/Communist) shipping quite easy, but also attack India, which is generally only scarcely defended. Thus the Brits, currently the strongest country of the Allies as the USA still aren't in that faction, will lose quite a bit of their empire before they can do anything about it. The way the game is programmed currently means that they won't consider Hungary a threat, regardless of all it's conq.. liberations up to date, as long as they are not at war with each other. I wonder if the Brits would actually move troops to the British / Hungarian borders if Hungarian armies were lining up on the other side.
The USA are in the Allies and have been since '38 iirc but they have a depressing tendency to have more pressing things to do in Washington DC.
Baltasar is right, attacking the Allies allows me to do two things, close off the Mediterranean and also attack India. India here is the real prize as it contains a fair amount of leadership and manpower. As I won't be able to annex the UK any time soon (unless the Germans launch a successful Sealion) it means that I benefit from using a collaborationist occupation policy in India. I can probably gain as much if not more leadership from this than all my previous conquests put together.
Baltasar is right, attacking the Allies allows me to do two things, close off the Mediterranean and also attack India. India here is the real prize as it contains a fair amount of leadership and manpower. As I won't be able to annex the UK any time soon (unless the Germans launch a successful Sealion) it means that I benefit from using a collaborationist occupation policy in India. I can probably gain as much if not more leadership from this than all my previous conquests put together.
When I referred to the Soviets steamrolling, I meant in a couple of years, not at this time in the aar. That's why I said after they beat the Germans back. Although the way he is going, he may be able to get his forces modern and big enough.